Systems and methods for facilitating real estate transactions with purchase  offer processing feature

ABSTRACT

A system and method for facilitating real estate transactions that is configured for receiving property information from a listing service or data feed, presenting a property information display on data communication devices for each property; generating a unique transaction actuator in each property information display, and responsive to selecting a unique transaction actuator, generating an offer form with an offer transmittal actuator, wherein the offer form includes a plurality of data fields relating to an offer to purchase property that are populated with the property information for the specific property associated with the selected unique transaction actuator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The subject disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods forfacilitating transactions between multiple parties, such as real estatetransactions.

Background of the Related Art

Over many years there has been the development of multiple listingservices (MLSs) that provide property listing aggregations for realestate brokers, agents, and other professionals in the real estatetransaction chain that pay for membership. Each MLS generally consistsof a database of residential, multifamily, commercial, and land realestate listings for the purpose of buying, selling or leasing thoseproperties in a geographically specific market.

While the basic fields, such as lot size, list price, size of building,number of bedrooms, etc., are present in all MLSs, beyond the basicnature of the data collected by MLSs, their formatting varies widely,largely based on the historic preferences and development of theprofession of each geographic market.

A standard for the transfer or exchange of property listing information,which is referred to as Real Estate Transaction Specification (RETS),has been developed by industry members over the last decade to addressthe formatting differences. The RETS is an XML standard that allows forthe electronic interchange of listing information at the protocol levelby, among other things, defining common basic fields.

While the MLSs remain a powerful tool which facilitates locatingproperty to purchase, it does not facilitate the actual transaction orpurchase of property between parties, which is still very much anon-automated and ad-hoc process.

For at least the foregoing reasons, there is a compelling need in theart for a real estate transaction management system and method thatprovides buyers, sellers and real estate professionals with the toolsnecessary to facilitate the purchase of property, and in particular,which facilitates the automated processing of purchase offers,counteroffers and acceptances, among other things.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Some embodiments of the invention provide a system and method foraddressing the needs mentioned above, among other things.

Some embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methodsfor facilitating real estate transactions, comprising the steps of:receiving property listing data through a first data communicationdevice in communication with a source of property listing data, whereinthe property listing data relates to one or more properties for sale andan offer receiving address; presenting a property information display onthe first data communication device for each property; and generating aunique transaction actuator in each property information displaypresented on the first data communication device, wherein the uniquetransaction actuator is associated with the specific property presentedon the first data communication device.

In some embodiments, the aforementioned method and system of theinvention is configured to respond to selecting a unique transactionactuator by: generating an offer form with an offer transmittalactuator, wherein the offer form includes a plurality of data fieldsrelating to an offer to purchase property; and populating the datafields with the property information for the specific propertyassociated with the selected unique transaction actuator, wherein theoffer form represents an offer to purchase the specific property andincludes an offer transmitting address.

In some embodiments, the aforementioned system and method of theinvention is configured to further respond to selecting the offertransmittal actuator by transmitting the populated offer form to theoffer receiving address relating to the specific property; generating anoffer response actuator for the populated offer form; and presenting thepopulated offer form and the offer response actuator on a second datacommunication device.

In some embodiments, the aforementioned system and method of theinvention is configured to yet further respond to selecting the offerresponse actuator by: generating a response form, wherein the responseform includes at least one data field for entering a response to theoffer and a response transmittal actuator.

In some embodiments, the aforementioned system and method of theinvention is configured to yet further respond to selecting the responsetransmittal actuator by transmitting the response form with the enteredresponse to the offer transmitting address.

These and other aspects of the system and method of the subjectinvention and some embodiments thereof will become more readily apparentto those having ordinary skill in the art from the following detaileddescription of the invention and some embodiments thereof taken inconjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

So that those having ordinary skill in the art to which at least someembodiments of the invention pertains will more readily understand howto make and use systems and methods in accordance therewith, suchembodiments thereof will be described in enabling detail herein belowwith reference to the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram representative of an exampleelectronic real estate transacting system in which certain embodimentsmay be employed; and

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting operational steps employed by asystem and method formed in accordance with some embodiments of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is generally related to systems and methods forfacilitating transaction management electronically through access to anelectronic transaction management platform which includes an offer andacceptance processing feature that provides offer submission, offerreceipt, offer management, offer countering and offer amendmentcapabilities to transacting parties.

Much of the inventive functionality and many of the inventive principlesare best implemented with or in software programs and instructions. Itis expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possiblysignificant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example,available time, current technology, and economic considerations, whenguided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readilycapable of generating such software instructions with minimalexperimentation. Therefore, in the interest of brevity and minimizationof any risk of obscuring the principles and concepts according to thepresent invention, further discussion of such software, if any, will belimited to the essentials with respect to the principles and conceptsused by the preferred embodiments.

Some embodiments of the invention disclose a new and useful tool forfacilitating real estate transactions and in particular the offersubmission, acceptance, negotiation and processing of offers betweenparties. The data communication device may receive and populate the realestate listing data for which offers are to be submitted on, from anyone or more sources, including real estate listing systems, computerizedreal estate listing systems or an entity such as the multiple listingservice (MLS) or any aggregator of MLS listing data. The data feed fromthe MLS may be sent to the data communication device in any format,including, but not limited to, RETS, Internet Data Exchange (IDX), FileTransfer Protocol (FTP), Extensible Markup Language (XML), or any otherdata feed format. The listing data feed, regardless of the initialformat of the feed, may be modified as necessary to populate and displaythe data to a user through a connection with a data communicationdevice.

While the embodiments discussed herein provide systems and methods forfacilitating offer and acceptance processing for real estatetransactions, it should be understood that this is a non-limiting,exemplary embodiment of a system and method of the invention. Thesystems and methods of the invention may be used in connection withtransactions involving other subject matter, including any items orservices which may be sold or involved in a transaction.

Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that a system inaccordance with some embodiments of the invention may include variouscomputer and network related software and hardware, that is, programs,operating systems, memory storage devices, data input/output devices,data processors, servers with links to data communication systems,wireless or otherwise, such as those which take the form of a local orwide area network, and a plurality of data transceiving terminalscapable of interfacing with the network, such as personal computers,handheld devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones or anyother devices capable of displaying a graphical user interface.

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the particulartypes of communication network and devices, software and hardware arenot vital to the full implementation of the embodiments described hereinor other embodiments within the scope and spirit of the invention. Itshould be understood that the type of communication network and devices,software and hardware may also vary based on the rapid advances intechnology that are ongoing in the industry. In other words, the precisesoftware and hardware configuration of the various embodiments of theinvention may vary accordingly while still remaining within the scopeand spirit of the invention.

Although the description discloses embodiments including, among othercomponents, software executed on hardware, it should be noted that theembodiments are merely illustrative and should not be considered aslimiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of thesehardware and software components may be embodied exclusively inhardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware, or in anycombination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Accordingly, certainembodiments may be implemented in other ways. Furthermore, well knownprocess steps and computer components may have not been described indetail herein in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the underlyingconcepts.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram representative of an exampleelectronic real estate transaction management system 10 in which certainembodiments may be employed. System 10 includes a transacting device 12,a gateway 14, and an electronic real estate market feed 16, which maycomprise a database, or any data feed containing real estate listingdata such as those described herein, including the RETS, IDX, FTP andXML data feeds. Transacting device 12 is in communication with thecommunication gateway 14. Gateway 14 is in communication with theelectronic real estate market feed 16 in order to extract or obtain thereal estate listing data.

As used herein, the phrase “in communication” encompasses directcommunication and/or indirect communication through one or moreintermediary components. The exemplary electronic system 10 depicted inFIG. 1 may be in communication with additional components, subsystems,and elements to provide additional functionality and capabilitieswithout departing from the teaching and disclosure provided herein.

In operation, the transacting device 12 may receive real estate listingdata from the electronic real estate market feed 16 through thecommunication gateway 14 for one or more properties for sale. The realestate listing data may include a variety of pictures and informationabout the property for sale and its contact person or transacting party,such as the owner, real estate professional, broker or agent involved inthe listing, the type of property, history of the property, schooldistrict, city, county, state, zip code, mailing address, sellerinformation, and current status. In some embodiments, the listings dataprovided to transacting device 12 from market feed 16 will be updatedupon request or periodically in order to provide the most currentinformation about properties for sale and remove properties which are nolonger for sale on the electronic market.

Market feed 16 may contain listing data in more than one format, whichmay occur because market feed 16 includes data from more than onesource, MLS or data feed. In some embodiments, system 10 is configuredto automatically map the listing information obtained from market feed16 to a preset format for presentation on transacting device 12.

A user may utilize the transacting device 12 to search and review realestate listings of properties currently available on the electronicmarket. Users may further utilize transacting device 12 to submit anoffer to purchase one or more of the properties for sale. In someembodiments, the offer to purchase includes mapping the listing data forthe property involved in the offer to a preset offer form which may thenbe transmitted through gateway 14 to the transacting device 12,electronic real estate market feed 16 and/or a contact person for thelisting.

The contact person or people for the listing may be notified of theoffer and receive the offer through another transacting device 12 incommunication with communication gateway 14. The contact person may thenrespond to the offer through communication with gateway 14 by, forexample, requesting clarification or an amendment, indicating acceptanceof the offer, declining the offer and presenting a counteroffer, all ofwhich can be transmitted through gateway 14 to the transacting device 12of the user who transmitted the offer.

Transacting device 12 may include one or more electronic computingplatforms. For example, transacting device 12 may include a desktopcomputer, hand-held device, laptop, server, a portable computing device,or a terminal, which may include a display and be in communication witha server. As another example, the transacting device 12 may include asingle or multi-core processor in communication with a memory or otherstorage medium configured to accessibly store one or more computerprograms, applications, libraries, computer readable instructions, andthe like, for execution by the processor.

As used herein, the phrases “configured to” and “adapted to” encompassthat an element, structure, or device has been modified, arranged,changed, or varied to perform a specific function or for a specificpurpose.

Transacting device 12 may include one or more transacting applicationswhich facilitates or improves electronic real estate transactionmanagement. These transacting applications may include computer readableinstructions that are stored in a computer readable medium andexecutable by a processor. A computer readable medium may includevarious types of volatile and non-volatile storage media, including, forexample, random access memory, read-only memory, programmable read-onlymemory, electrically programmable read-only memory, electricallyerasable read-only memory, flash memory, any combination thereof, or anyother tangible data storage device. As used herein, the termnon-transitory or tangible computer readable medium is expressly definedto include any type of computer readable storage media and to excludepropagating signals.

One or more components or modules of a transacting application may beloaded into the computer readable medium of the transacting device 12from another computer readable medium. For example, the transactingapplication (or updates thereto) may be stored by a manufacturer,developer, or publisher on one or more CDs or DVDs, which are thenloaded onto the transacting device 12 or to a server from which device12 retrieves the application. As another example, the transacting device12 may receive the transacting application (or updates to thetransacting application) from a server, for example, via the Internet oran internal network. The transacting device 12 may receive thetransacting application or updates when requested by the transactingdevice 12 and/or un-requested by the transacting device 12.

The gateway 14 may include one or more electronic computing platforms.For example, the gateway 14 may be implemented as one or more desktopcomputer, hand-held device, laptop, server, a portable computing device,a terminal, a workstation with a single or multi-core processor, clusterof computers, databases, servers, or any combination thereof.

Gateway 14 may facilitate communication. For example, the gateway 14 mayperform protocol translation for data communicated between thetransacting device 12 and the market 16. For example, the gateway 14 maytransform property listing data in a market-specific format receivedfrom the market feed 16 into a single format which is best understood bythe transacting device 12.

Gateway 14 may include a transacting application, similar to thetransacting applications discussed above, that facilitates or improveselectronic real estate transaction management and offer and acceptanceprocessing. In some embodiments, gateway 14 communicates with the marketfeed 16 using a local area network, a wide area network, a virtualprivate network, a T1 line, a T3 line, an ISDN line, apoint-of-presence, the Internet, and/or a shared memory system, forexample. It should be understood that communication with market feed 16may require the entry and approval of proper credentials, such asusername and password.

In some embodiments, transacting device 12 and gateway 14 are mountedtogether in a unitary housing, while in other embodiments they areseparate and remotely positioned components.

Electronic real estate market feed 16 may include any electronic realestate listing system or data feed from one or more computers, servers,or other computing devices, which is continually being updated bymultiple users. Market feed 16 is typically in communication with avariety of other transacting devices, which may be similar totransacting device 12.

Property data from market feed 16 may be provided in one or moremessages or data packets or through a shared memory system. For example,the market feed 16 may publish a data feed to subscribing devices, suchas the transacting device 12 or gateway 14. The data feed may includeproperty data.

System 10 may include additional, different, or fewer components. Forexample, system 10 may include multiple transacting devices, gateways,and/or markets. In another example, system 10 may include othercommunication devices, such as middleware, firewalls, hubs, switches,routers, servers, exchange-specific communication equipment, modems,security managers, and/or encryption/decryption devices.

As mentioned above, with the continuous and ongoing improvements incomputer and electronic technology, many modifications may be made tothe specific nature of hardware and/or software components required.Accordingly, one of skill in the art may select any hardware componentsthat would rapidly and efficiently process the data and provide storageand communication as needed for the successful operation of someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 provides a process flow diagram which illustrates operationalsteps employed by an exemplary embodiment of the method of the inventionreferred to as method 50. For illustrative purposes and convenience, theprocess steps will be described in conjunction with the exemplary systemembodied by system 10 as shown in FIG. 1.

It should be understood that graphical user interfaces may be employedby embodiments disclosed herein for display on a transacting device 12that may incorporate user-friendly features and fit seamlessly withother operating system interfaces, that is, in a framed form havingborders, multiple folders, toolbars with drop or pull-down menus,embedded links to other screens and various other selectable featuresassociated with animated graphical representations of depressiblebuttons. These features can be selected (i.e., “clicked on”) by the uservia connected mouse, keyboard, touch screen or other commonly used toolfor indicating a preference in a computerized graphical interface.

In some embodiments, step 52 involves a user requesting property listingdata through a transacting device 12 which communicates with electronicmarket 16 through gateway 14 to obtain the requested property data. Itshould be understood that in some gateway 14 may be configured torequest updated data for one or more particular markets or areas on aregular basis, such as daily, so that users are initially provided withupdated data, though further requests from market 16 are also enabled.

In step 54, the requested property listing data is received from a datafeed or other source and presented on a transacting device 12. Theproperty listing data for each property is mapped to data fields forpresentation in a preset universal format display through transactingdevice 12. The data fields may include a variety of information aboutthe property and an address, such as an email address, for receivingrequests for further information about the property or receiving offersto purchase the property.

In step 56, a unique transaction actuator is generated for each propertyand made accessible in connection with the property information display.A user may select to make an offer on a specific property by selectingor clicking on the transaction actuator through transacting device 12.The transaction actuator may be a hyperlink and represented by a symboland/or text.

In step 58, responsive to selecting a transaction actuator associatedwith a specific property, an offer form is either automaticallypopulated with all of the property data relating to the specificproperty selected, partially populated with the remaining manuallyentered or all of the information is manually entered. One or more datafields may be provided for a user to enter information into the offerform, such as the monetary amount of the offer and an offer transmittingaddress, such as an email address. Offer terms may also be madeselectable from various options on the offer form by providingindicators or checkboxes that may be checked to indicate selections fromvarious options. In some embodiments, the offer form is automaticallytransmitted to the offer receiving address. In this embodiment, an offertransmittal actuator is generated as part of the offer form which mustbe selected for the offer to be transmitted to the offer receivingaddress associated with the property. A cancel button may also beprovided to cancel the offer.

In step 60, responsive to the offer transmittal actuator being selected,the offer is transmitted through gateway 14 to the offer receivingaddress associated with the subject property involved in the offer.

In some embodiments, the contact person for the property is notified orotherwise receives information regarding the offer through gateway 14using another transacting device 12, which may require the entry andapproval of credentials, such as a username and password.

In step 62, the offer is received and may be viewed through atransacting device 12 in communication with gateway 14. An offerresponse actuator is generated and also displayed along with the offerthrough the transacting device 12.

In step 64, responsive to selecting the offer response actuator, aresponse form and response transmittal actuator are generated. Theresponse may include a data field for data entry and/or selectableindicators, such as checkboxes, for selecting various responses to theoffer, such as acceptance of the offer, a request for amendment of theterms of the offer, a counteroffer or a rejection of the offer, forexample.

In step 66, the response is transmitted to the offer transmittingaddress responsive to the response transmittal actuator being selectedand may be viewed through a transacting device, which may also requirethe entry and approval of proper credentials.

If the response is acceptance then the real estate transaction is readyto move forward towards fruition. If the response is a counteroffer,then the transacting party responsible for the original offer may nowprovide a response to the counteroffer in the same manner as above.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that while thedisclosure has been described above in connection with particularembodiments and examples, the disclosure is not necessarily so limited,and that numerous other embodiments, examples, uses, modifications anddepartures from the embodiments, examples and uses are intended to beencompassed by the claims attached hereto. Various features andadvantages of the disclosure are set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for generating andtransmitting information related to real estate offers, comprising thesteps of: retrieving, by a gateway server, a first plurality of propertydisplay records being stored in a database, each of the first pluralityof property display records being associated with a particular realestate property for sale and each including a first set of propertyinformation organized into first preset category data fields, whereinthe first set of property information includes an associated listingagent email address; transmitting, by the gateway server, a propertylisting data request to a plurality of Multiple Listing Services atpredefined time intervals, wherein each of the plurality of MultipleListing Services includes a data feed; receiving, by the gateway server,property listing data in XML data format from each of the data feeds inresponse to the property listing data request, wherein the propertylisting data from each of the data feeds includes a second plurality ofproperty display records including a second set of property informationorganized into second category data fields; determining, by the gatewayserver, a first property display record from the first plurality ofproperty display records corresponds with a second property displayrecord from the second plurality of property display records; mapping,by the gateway server, the second category data fields in the secondproperty display record with corresponding first preset category datafields in the first property display record, wherein a propertyinformation in at least one first preset category data field in thefirst property display record and a property information in at least onecorresponding second category data field are formatted differently;modifying, by the gateway server, a format of the property informationin the at least one corresponding second category data field to the sameformat as the property information in the at least one first presetcategory data field; updating, by the gateway server, the first set ofproperty information in the first property display record to incorporatethe second set of property information from the corresponding secondproperty display record, including incorporating the propertyinformation from the at least one corresponding second category datafield in the modified format to the property information in the at leastone first preset category data field; generating, by the gateway server,a corresponding unique transaction actuator for each of the firstplurality of property display records, each corresponding uniquetransaction actuator including a hyperlink with computer-implementedinstructions for generating a corresponding offer form, wherein thefirst plurality of property display records includes the updated firstproperty display record; receiving, by the gateway server, a signalincluding a property listing request from a first data communicationdevice associated with a buyer's agent to display information indicativeof the real estate properties for sale and responsively display awebpage for displaying the information indicative of the real estateproperties for sale on the first data communication device; receiving,by the gateway server, a property search request from the buyer's agentvia the first data communication device and displaying a propertyinformation display on the first data communication device including acorresponding unique transaction actuator in response to the receivedproperty search request; receiving, by the gateway server from the firstdata communication device, a first signal indicating a selection of thedisplayed corresponding unique transaction actuator by the buyer's agentvia the first data communication device; responsive to receiving thefirst signal: accessing the database and selecting, by the gatewayserver, a property display record from the first plurality of propertydisplay records associated with the corresponding unique transactionactuator based on the computer-implemented instructions included in theselected corresponding unique transaction actuator; creating, by thegateway server, an offer form associated with the selected propertydisplay record including generating a plurality of data fields relatingto an offer to purchase the particular real estate property associatedwith the selected property display record; automatically populating theplurality of data fields relating to the offer, by the gateway server,including retrieving the first set of property information included inthe selected property display record and mapping the retrieved first setof property information included in the selected property display recordonto the plurality of data fields; generating, by the gateway server, anoffer transmittal actuator including a hyperlink withcomputer-implemented instructions to transmit a notification of theoffer to an associated listing agent email address included in theretrieved first set of property information; transmitting, by thegateway server, the populated offer form and the generated offertransmittal actuator to the first data communication device; andrendering, by the gateway server, a webpage including the populatedoffer form including the offer transmittal actuator on the first datacommunication device, wherein the populated offer form represents theoffer to purchase the particular real estate property associated withthe selected property display record and includes an offer transmittingaddress associated with the buyer's agent; receiving a second signalindicating a selection of the offer transmittal actuator by the buyer'sagent via the first data communication device; responsive to receivingthe second signal: identifying, by the gateway server, an associatedlisting agent email address associated with the selected propertydisplay record and transmitting an email communication to the identifiedassociated listing agent email address notifying a corresponding listingagent of the offer to purchase the particular real estate propertyassociated with the selected property display record; receiving, by thegateway server, a request to display the populated offer form from thecorresponding listing agent via a second data communication device andprompting the listing agent to provide a username and password to accessthe populated offer form; transmitting, by gateway server, the populatedoffer form to the second data communication device upon receiving theusername and password; generating an offer response actuator for thepopulated offer form; and rendering the populated offer form and theoffer response actuator on the second data communication deviceassociated with the listing agent; receiving a third signal indicating aselection of the offer response actuator by the listing agent via thesecond data communication device; responsive to receiving the thirdsignal, generating a response form, wherein the response form includes adata field, a plurality of selectable response indicators, and aresponse transmittal actuator, each of the plurality of selectableresponse indicators corresponding to a response to the offer includingan acceptance of the offer, a request for amendment, a counteroffer, anda rejection of the offer, the response transmittal actuator including ahyperlink including computer-implemented instructions to transmit theresponse form to an offer transmitting email address associated with thebuyer's agent; and receiving a fourth signal indicating a selection ofone of the selectable response indicators and the response transmittalactuator by the listing agent via the second data communication device;responsive to receiving the fourth signal, creating, by the gatewayserver, a response form responding to the offer based on the selectedresponse indicator and transmitting the created response form with theselected response corresponding to the selected response indicator tothe offer transmitting address.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the first preset category data fields include at least one of acontact person, a MLS number, a broker, an agent, a property type, aschool district, a city, a county, a state, a zip code, a propertyaddress, seller information, and a current status.
 3. A computer networksystem for generating and transmitting information related to realestate offers, comprising a plurality of data communication devicescoupled to a gateway server, the gateway server including one or moreprocessing devices for: retrieving a first plurality of property displayrecords being stored in a database, each of the first plurality ofproperty display records being associated with a particular real estateproperty for sale and each including a first set of property informationorganized into first preset category data fields, wherein the first setof property information includes an associated listing agent emailaddress; transmitting a property listing data request to a plurality ofMultiple Listing Services at predefined time intervals, wherein each ofthe plurality of Multiple Listing Services includes a data feed;receiving property listing data in XML data format from each of the datafeeds in response to the property listing data request, wherein theproperty listing data from each of the data feeds includes a secondplurality of property display records including a second set of propertyinformation organized into second category data fields; determining afirst property display record from the first plurality of propertydisplay records corresponds with a second property display record fromthe second plurality of property display records; mapping the secondcategory data fields in the second property display record withcorresponding first preset category data fields in the first propertydisplay record, wherein a property information in at least one firstpreset category data field in the first property display record and aproperty information in at least one corresponding second category datafield are formatted differently; modifying a format of the propertyinformation in the at least one corresponding second category data fieldto the same format as the property information in the at least one firstpreset category data field; updating the first set of propertyinformation the first property display record to incorporate the secondset of property information from the corresponding second propertydisplay record, including incorporating the property information fromthe at least one corresponding second category data field in themodified format to the property information in the at least one firstpreset category data field; generating a corresponding uniquetransaction actuator for each of the first plurality of property displayrecords, each corresponding unique transaction actuator including ahyperlink with computer-implemented instructions for generating acorresponding offer form, wherein the first plurality of propertydisplay records includes the updated first property display record;receiving a signal including a property listing request from a firstdata communication device associated with a buyer's agent to displayinformation indicative of the real estate properties for sale andresponsively display a webpage for displaying the information indicativeof the real estate properties for sale on the first data communicationdevice; receiving a property search request from the buyer's agent viathe first data communication device and displaying a propertyinformation display on the first data communication device including acorresponding unique transaction actuator in response to the receivedproperty search request; receiving a first signal indicating a selectionof the displayed corresponding unique transaction actuator by thebuyer's agent via the first data communication device; responsive toreceiving the first signal: accessing the database and selecting aproperty display record from the first plurality of property displayrecords associated with the corresponding unique transaction actuatorbased on the computer-implemented instructions included in the selectedcorresponding unique transaction actuator; creating an offer formassociated with the selected property display record includinggenerating a plurality of data fields relating to an offer to purchasethe particular real estate property associated with the selectedproperty display record; automatically populating the plurality of datafields relating to the offer, by the gateway server, includingretrieving the first set of property information included in theselected property display record and mapping the retrieved first set ofproperty information included in the selected property display recordonto the plurality of data fields; generating an offer transmittalactuator including a hyperlink with computer-implemented instructions totransmit a notification of the offer to an associated listing agentemail address included in the retrieved first set of propertyinformation; transmitting the populated offer form and the generatedoffer transmittal actuator to the first data communication device; andrendering a webpage including the populated offer form including theoffer transmittal actuator on the first data communication device,wherein the populated offer form represents the offer to purchase theparticular real estate property associated with the selected propertydisplay record and includes an offer transmitting address associatedwith the buyer's agent; receiving a second signal indicating a selectionof the offer transmittal actuator by the buyer's agent via the firstdata communication device; responsive to receiving the second signal:identifying an associated listing agent email address associated withthe selected property display record and transmitting an emailcommunication to the identified associated listing agent email addressnotifying a corresponding listing agent of the offer to purchase theparticular real estate property associated with the selected propertydisplay record; receiving a request to display the populated offer formfrom the corresponding listing agent via a second data communicationdevice and prompting the listing agent to provide a username andpassword to access the populated offer form; transmitting the populatedoffer form to the second data communication device upon receiving theusername and password; generating an offer response actuator for thepopulated offer form; and rendering the populated offer form and theoffer response actuator on a second data communication device associatedwith the listing agent; receiving a third signal indicating a selectionof the offer response actuator by the listing agent via the second datacommunication device; responsive to receiving the third signal,generating a response form, wherein the response form includes a datafield, a plurality of selectable indicators, and a response transmittalactuator, each of the plurality of selectable response indicatorscorresponding to a response to the offer including an acceptance of theoffer, a request for amendment, a counteroffer, and a rejection of theoffer, the response transmittal actuator including a hyperlink includingcomputer-implemented instructions to transmit the response form to anoffer transmitting email address associated with the buyer's agent; andreceiving a fourth signal indicating a selection of one of theselectable response indicators and the response transmittal actuator bythe listing agent via the second data communication device; responsiveto receiving the fourth signal, creating, by the gateway server, aresponse form responding to the offer based on the selected responseindicator and transmitting the created response form with the selectedresponse corresponding to the selected response indicator to the offertransmitting address.
 4. The system in accordance with claim 3, whereinthe response to the offer includes a counteroffer, the gateway serverconfigured to allow the listing agent to modify the received populatedoffer form to generate the counteroffer.
 5. The system in accordancewith claim 4, the gateway server configured to allow the buyer's agentto modify the populated offer form upon receiving the counteroffer. 6.The system in accordance with claim 3, the gateway server configured toreceive property listing data from the plurality of Multiple ListingServices via the Internet.
 7. The system in accordance with claim 6,wherein the gateway server is configured to transmit the propertylisting data request to the plurality of Multiple Listing Servicesdaily.
 8. The system in accordance with claim 3, the gateway serverconfigured to generate the response form including a pull-down menuincluding the plurality of selectable response indicators.
 9. The systemin accordance with claim 3, the first preset category data fieldsincluding at least one of a contact person, a MLS number, a broker, anagent, a property type, a school district, a city, a county, a state, azip code, a property address, seller information, and a current status.10. The system in accordance with claim 3, the gateway server configuredto transmit the property listing data request to the plurality ofMultiple Listing Services upon receiving a corresponding request from atleast one of the first data communication device or second datacommunication device.
 11. The system in accordance with claim 3, whereinthe plurality of Multiple Listing Services includes a first MultipleListing Service associated with a different geographic region than asecond Multiple Listing Service.
 12. The method in accordance with claim1, wherein the response to the offer includes a counteroffer, the methodincludes the step of allowing the listing agent to modify the receivedpopulated offer form to generate the counteroffer.
 13. The method inaccordance with claim 12, including the step of allowing the buyer'sagent to modify the populated offer form upon receiving thecounteroffer.
 14. The method in accordance with claim 1, including thesteps of receiving property listing data from the plurality of MultipleListing Services via the Internet.
 15. The method in accordance withclaim 14, wherein the gateway server transmits the property listing datarequest to the plurality of Multiple Listing Services daily.
 16. Themethod in accordance with claim 1, the gateway server generates theresponse form including a pull-down menu including the plurality ofselectable response indicators.
 17. The method in accordance with claim1, the plurality of Multiple Listing Services includes a first MultipleListing Service associated with a different geographic region than asecond Multiple Listing Service.